Analysis of 1 Million Employees Helps Explain Retention & Loyalty

We run monthly managers’ meetings at SEOmoz with the goal to improve communication between managers, hone individual skills and discuss issues that can help make all of us better at our jobs. Unlike the weekly eTeam meeting (which I need to write about), the managers’ meeting includes anyone in the company who has a direct report, even just one.

At our last meeting, Walt Jones, who was recently promoted on the engineering team, brought up some research via Gallup that I loved.

The 12 questions:

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?
9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
10. Do I have a best friend at work?
11. In the last six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?
12. This last year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

Some of the conclusions to emerge from this study are: 

• While how the company is set up is important to employees, of more significance is the association between the employee and their immediate manager.
• Most employees would rather work for a great manager in an old-fashioned company than for a terrible manager in a go-ahead company.

The 12 questions fall into four natural groupings:

• The basics – questions 1 and 2 The key emphasis here is ‘‘What do I get as an employee?’’ and the focus is on finding out what is expected.
• Your own expertise – questions 3 – 6 An emphasis on ‘‘What do I give as employee?’’ and a focus on your individual contribution and other’s opinions of it.
• How others will react to your work – questions 7 – 10 An emphasis on, ‘‘Am I in the right place to make the greatest possible contribution?’’ and a focus on being surrounded by people who are just as anxious to push the envelope outwards.
• How new ideas can be introduced – questions 11 and 12 The emphasis here is on, ‘‘How can we all grow as a group?’’ Similarly, the focus now falls on innovation – the actual application of novel and beneficial ideas.

Managers should focus on meeting employee needs in group 1 and group 2 before trying to move on to group 3 or group 4 needs. Otherwise, any efforts to improve group 3 or group 4 performance standards will be wasted.

The top 5 factors for retention (employee happiness):

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
4. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
5. At work, do my opinions seem to count?

The top 5 factors for business outcomes:

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
4. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
5. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?